Neil covered the basics of getting started such as choosing a platform, I discussed content generation and Chris gave some insights in to getting your blog noticed and generating meaningful business leads.

I thought it would be useful to share with you, the outline of my presentation.

Your Style…

Before you can generate constuctive ideas or devise a plan/strategy for your blog, you need to be clear about the style of your blog.

Your own personality and goals should determine this, but take time to consider:

Your target audience. Professionals? Niche? Mums at home? Young People? What will they be interested in? How much time/money do they have to spend? What kind of language/grammer is appropriate? Also, consider that readers may be your current client base, sharing knowledge is a great tool for client retention so don’t just think of it as a lead generation exercise.

What “calls to action” need to be included to achieve your objectives. For example, are you hoping for a call, a newsletter sign up or SEO for your main website? Then ASK, be clear about what you want your readers to do. Are there “key words” that you need to incorporate for SEO?

How you will promote interaction (comments, social media sharing, bookmarking etc) Blogging is all about sharing information to build trust amongst your peers and clients.

How often will you post a blog? And what time of the day/week/month is best for you and your audience? To build rapport you need to blog regularly, but that doesn’t necessarily mean frequently. Quality definitely overrules quantity.

What are your competitors doing? How will you differentiate yourself?

What format will you use? Short paragraphs, full articles, infographics, links, video…..

Will you actively seek guest authors? This is a great way to share readership, build alliances and double the social media impact, but be careful not to confuse your audience, the posts must be relevant to them and contribute to your overall strategy.

Once you have these issues clearly documented, you will find ideas for content everywhere you look and there is not enough time in the day to cover them, so a structured plan is essential.

Part 2 will look at what to write and how to generate ideas that will work.

The information provided in this blog illustrates my opinions and experiences, it does not constitute advice and I do not accept responsibility for any actions taken or refrained from as a result of reading this post.

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